This licentitate thesis is a study of Upper-Secondary School stu-dents’ approach towards reading fiction in the school subject of Swedish from a socio-cultural perspective. Furthermore, the social context and its importance for the students’ reading situation has been mapped.
The students participating in the study are all first-graders and boys, studying the Construction Programme.
The empirical material consists primarily of oral statements made by the students concerning their perception of how to read fiction in school.
Using the construct of Pierre Bourdieu and with the reception model of Kathleen McCormick as a point of departure, the repertoirs of the students are described and analyzed.
This study shows that the students bring different representa-tions of their group belonging, which effect their approach to rea-ding fiction. It also shows that the students’ idea of what a reader is and their own reading ability create their approach to reading. Ad-ditionally, the students have problems to see the actual purpose of reading fiction in a school situation.
The results of the study show that in order to read fiction success-fully in a classroom situation, the school has to discuss and chal-lenge the students’ views of group belonging. Furthermore the school must improve when it comes to illustrating the more precise purpose and meaning of reading fiction in the school subject of Swedish.
The study shows that because of the students’ different approa-ches to reading fiction, they tend to do two types of reading, one in-dividual and one for the school . In the latter, the students are incli-ned to limit their reading potential. And this is the real challenge for the subject of Swedish, but also ultimately the school, to challenge the students to use their full reading potential.
Finally, the results of the study is discussed in relation to the new curriculum of the subject of Swedish, as it is presented in the sylla-bus ”Gy 11”. ”Gy 11” has been implemented since the autumn of 2011. Additionally, the consequences of the decreased number of hours for the subject of Swedish is considered.
There are, however, stil good possibilities for the Swedish school to enable the students to reach their full reading potential in a class-room sitution.